India says Pakistani Shelling Kills Two Soldiers at Kashmir Border

Indian policemen remove a blockade setup by Kashmiri protesters in front of closed shops during an anti-India protest in Srinagar October 14, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

SRINAGAR, India, Nov 7 – The Indian army said Pakistani shelling killed two of its soldiers at posts along the border of Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday, and five others including three civilians were injured.

It said it retaliated by destroying several Pakistani posts.

Artillery tit-for-tat exchanges and skirmishes between the two have intensified along the frontier running through the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir over the last few months.

The dispute over Kashmir has sparked two of the three wars between nuclear-armed India andPakistan since partition and independence from Britain in 1947.

“We are giving a fitting response. (We) will hit them where it hurts the most,” said Indian defence spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta.

“It is very unprofessional act of the Pakistan army to target our residential areas.”

On Thursday, Pakistan named eight Indian diplomats it accuses of espionage and terrorism. New Delhi dismissed the allegations as “baseless and unsubstantiated”.

Ten days ago, the two countries expelled one diplomat each from the other’s embassies, each accusing the other of spying.